Pilgrimage of the People: Liturgies for Labyrinth Worship throughout the Church Year

By Robert J. F. Elsner

Labyrinths are often thought of as individual meditation tools. In this new volume, liturgies are provided for communal worship so that groups of people can center their prayer on God and develop community. Liturgies for celebrations and major and minor feasts throughout the church calendar are provided, along with special events like healing services, reconciliation, and civic occasions. Each liturgy can be led by laity or ordained persons. Aid is provided for those new to the centering prayer of labyrinths, and options for individuals unable to walk or use a wheelchair are included.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Mar 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385204991

Robert J. F. Elsner

Robert J.F. Elsner is professor and chair of psychology at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He has worked with labyrinths and centering prayer for many decades, and written liturgies for numerous churches and organizations.

Book preview

Pilgrimage of the People

Liturgies for Labyrinth Worship throughout the Church Year

Robert J. F. Elsner

Pilgrimage of the People

Liturgies for Labyrinth Worship throughout the Church Year

Copyright ©

2024

Robert J. F. Elsner. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

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paperback isbn: 979-8-3852-0497-7

hardcover isbn: 979-8-3852-0498-4

ebook isbn: 979-8-3852-0499-1

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Elsner, Robert J. F. [author].

Title: Pilgrimage of the people : liturgies for labyrinth worship throughout the church year / Robert J. F. Elsner.

Description: Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers,

2024

| Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers:

isbn 979-8-3852-0497-7 (

paperback

) | isbn 979-8-3852-0498-4 (

hardcover

) | isbn 979-8-3852-0499-1 (

ebook

)

Subjects: LCSH: Labyrinths. | Labyrinths—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Spiritual life—Christianity. | Prayer—Christianity. | Liturgies.

Classification:

BV4509.5 E47 2024 (

paperback

) | BV4509.5 (

ebook

)

version number 10/11/23

Scriptures taken from the KING JAMES VERSION (KJV): KING JAMES VERSION, public domain unless otherwise noted. Scriptures taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright

1989

, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked NIV are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright ©

1973

,

1978

,

1984

,

2011

by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

A Note on Using Labyrinths for Liturgies

Liturgies and Labyrinths

Ordinary Time: Throughout the Church Year

A Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Church Year of Labyrinth Liturgies

Advent

Advent 1: Labyrinth Liturgy of Hope

Advent 2: Labyrinth Liturgy of Peace

Advent 3: Labyrinth Liturgy of Joy

Advent 4: Labyrinth Liturgy of Love

Christmas Eve Labyrinth Liturgy

Christmastide

Christmas Labyrinth Liturgy

An Epiphany Liturgy of the Labyrinth

Between Christmastide and Holy Week

A Liturgy for the Baptism of the Lord

A Liturgy for the Transfiguration

A Lenten Liturgy of the Labyrinth

Holy Week and Easter

A Palm Sunday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

An Ash Wednesday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Maundy Thursday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Good Friday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Holy Saturday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

Easter

An Easter Liturgy of the Labyrinth

Between Easter and Trinity Sunday

An Ascension Day Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Pentecost Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Trinity Sunday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

Special Labyrinth Liturgies

An All Saints Day Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Christ the King Sunday Liturgy of the Labyrinth

A Suggested Liturgy for the Washing of Feet

Other Feast Day Liturgies

A Liturgy of the Labyrinth for St. Stephen’s Day December 26

A Feast of the Holy Innocents Liturgy of the Labyrinth December 28

A Feast of St. Joseph Liturgy of the Labyrinth March 19

A Feast of Mary Magdalene Liturgy of the Labyrinth July 22

A Feast of St. Mary the Virgin Liturgy of the Labyrinth August 15

A Feast of St. Michael and All Angels Liturgy of the Labyrinth September 29

A Feast of St. James of Jerusalem Liturgy of the Labyrinth October 23

Special Occasion Labyrinth Liturgies

A Liturgy of Healing in the Labyrinth

A Wedding/Anniversary Liturgy in the Labyrinth

A Liturgy of Reconciliation in the Labyrinth

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Liberation

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Justice

A Mother’s Day Liturgy for the Labyrinth

Special Public Holiday Liturgies of the Labyrinth

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Independence Day July 4

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day

A Liturgy of the Labyrinth for Thanksgiving Day

A Labyrinth Liturgy for President’s Day

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Memorial Day

A Labyrinth Liturgy for Veteran’s Day November 11

Resources and References

About the Author

This book is dedicated to

the Glory of God,

and to my beloved wife, Betsy.

We walk with joy in the Lord.

Acknowledgements

The development of this book and the artwork contained herein was aided by a small grant from the Center for Worship and the Arts at Samford University. My deepest thanks to the staff of the CWA for believing in my vision for this project.

The artwork used between sections of this book are electronic derivatives of a series of paintings and pen-and-ink drawings done by the author during the summer of 2023. All paintings were oil on 4’ x 3’ canvas, all drawings were pen-and-ink on cartridge paper.

These services are not officially endorsed by any ecclesiastical body and are solely the creation of the author. While they are developed in an Anglican tradition, they borrow from many other Christian traditions. No endorsement or approval is implied from any specific governing body within the church universal.

Special Thanks to Betsy and Sam Elsner for proofreading this manuscript.

A Note on Using Labyrinths for Liturgies

Liturgies are inherently works of people, not individuals, so this book is designed primarily for use by churches or groups of people seeking new worship experiences together to help them focus on their relationships with God and one another. Labyrinths have often been seen as a space for individual contemplation, not corporate worship. There are three major issues to remind you of at this point.

First, not all congregations are blessed with the resources to have their own labyrinth or access to one nearby. Creativity sometimes has to be expressed in defining what a labyrinth is. If there is a room inside like a parish hall, then a labyrinth can be made with tape, toys, or found objects, which can be placed on the floor to create a labyrinth. If an outdoor space is available, using line chalk or line paint can make a great labyrinth for the congregation to try out and the paint or chalk will wear away fairly quickly. If you don’t even have such possibilities, map out a course through a public park. Please focus on the benefits of the labyrinth, not the obstacles to doing the practice. Imagination is the basis of a labyrinth and imagination should be nurtured in us all.

Second, congregations are full of people of different ages and abilities. Labyrinths are made to be walked, but not all of us are physically able to walk. For those of us blessed with the ability to walk, walking should be done at one’s own pace when alone, or at a mutually comfortable pace with others. For those who cannot walk, but are able to use a wheelchair, the same instructions apply. For people unable to journey through the labyrinth with their whole bodies, a cut, carved, or printed copy of a labyrinth can be used. I have created labyrinths by outlining one with dried school glue on paper to help a finger find the way, and another I made by cutting a channel in a block of clay that I then let dry so that I had a labyrinth to journey through.

Third, in this day and age, it is common, even in churches, to abbreviate and expedite services. This is completely oppositional to the liturgies presented here, which are intentionally designed to slow us down and increase contemplation. There are times we should wait and pray. Imagine you are at an altar rail waiting for Communion. If you just rush and get impatient, you have not really received the Body and Blood of our Lord, you had a slightly tasty snack with friends. We are too often like Elijah¹ listening for God in big events. Here, we must slow down in order to listen for the still soft voice of God.

These forms have been written to be led by clergy or laity, so wordings tend to reflect us instead of you for blessings and other canonically sensitive areas. Changes to the blessings can easily be made by ordained persons to bring them more in line with the liturgical preferences or traditions of the clergy using them.

Origins of This Book

I moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in August of 2021, and visited lots of local churches. My family and I decided upon Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, a warm and welcoming parish that is well-known locally as a church that truly reaches out to help others.

At a potluck summer on June 16th of 2022, a gunman opened fire in the parish hall and killed three of our parishioners. Bart, Sharon, and Jane were amazing people who had made me feel welcome when my family and I arrived in Alabama and become a part of that church. Immediately after the shooting, I was fortunate enough to be there to help provide some comfort and prayer as a psychologist and a theologian. However, I wanted to help further.

During my time serving at a few churches, I was honored to plan and build labyrinths and opened them to communities whose traditions are distant from the High Church one in which I live and move and have my being. Others in the congregation had similar thoughts of constructing a new labyrinth as a memorial to these three martyrs, but we all had a concern of how to incorporate the rest of the congregation into using the labyrinth as a therapeutic and theological focal point.

There is an all-too-common view of labyrinths as an alternative individual spiritual tradition. I decided to write a liturgy, as I did not know of any such liturgies for labyrinths, and knew we needed something structured to help people acclimate to using the labyrinth for centering prayer. The first liturgy in this book is that first product. As we used the liturgy, it became clear that we needed more. I found a few prayers and meditations for labyrinth use, but no liturgies in the real sense of structured or semi-structured prayer services that incorporate a labyrinth into actual worship. The following liturgies are for both large and small congregational use.

It is my prayer that these labyrinth liturgies will help people anywhere in the world, even if the people can’t walk or roll through them. Prayer finds a way: the way of Jesus.

To God be all glory.

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Liturgies and Labyrinths

Christian worship has never been merely an abstract set of prayers and rubrics which are eternally valid for all times and places, but rather the manner in which people in specific, historical, social, and cultural circumstances express their faith through symbolic ritual. In order to appreciate this necessarily enculturated nature of liturgy it is crucial that we attempt to understand a peoples’ way of praying as a whole, as a kind of liturgical system.¹

In the above quote, Baldovin recognizes that liturgies must change, transform, or be written for the needs of the people. Liturgies are at the core of most Christian worship, even in churches and groups that proclaim themselves to be outside of liturgical traditions. We pray and praise God in myriad ways, sometimes developing new ways over and over again, sometimes using the same formulae and systems as our forbearers used. Liturgies that defy expectations, such as those presented outdoors, have possibilities of teaching the congregation new views and freeing the concept of liturgy from the purely inside form to which most people are accustomed.² The earliest liturgies recorded³ show similarities with what is used today in prayers, psalms, and Bible readings from a lectionary, usually interjected with hymns.

At times we do not have historical records, and see through the glass only very darkly, but